PS. Before the survey below, I would like to clarify that the data from three northern hospitals cannot present all hospitals in Taiwan. And, most of the time there’s some differences from North to South, and from West to East of Taiwan. The differences could lead to US$300~500 gap in salary, or even more.

1. Pharmacists work in Hospitals

Pharmacists in hospital generally have to work in 3 shifts (day-shift/night-shift/midnight-shift; but still depends on which hospital you are in). Frankly speaking, we have daily-work-hours (by law, 8 hours a day). Every hospital would have a general required working hours for pharmacist to fulfill. However, due to the shifts and off, usually we would account at the end of each month. And, if pharmacist’s actual working hours is less than the required working hours, he/she would have to make up next moth. In the opposite, he/she could work less next month.

If pharmacist don’t take evening shift, they usually would have to work on weekend. And, pharmacists would take turns work on weekend (Saturday and Sunday morning). They may take turns work on midnight shift several times a month, but still depend on different hospitals’ policy.

2. Monthly Off/Yearly Special Leaving

According to the by-law, pharmacists have yearly special leaving for 7 days from year 1 to year 5 practicing. And, after that special leavings days would be added up every several years. However, different hospitals still have different policy about the yearly special leaving.

Monthly Off could be allowed for 8days, according to the Labor Standard Act that we have two-days weekend. But since pharmacists in hospitals need to run the shifts, we usually would take the monthly-working-hours as base. For national holidays, pharmacists would need to take turns working in the hospital.

3. Salary counting:

After consultation with several of my hospital colleagues, it would be better to look into the annual wages. And here’s how we count the yearly salary. There’s always a basic salary(US$1000~1500/month starting wages for first-year young pharmacist) for pharmacists in hospital in Taiwan and the basic salary would have minor modification accordingly and yearly. And, we have some kind of bonuses (add to the yearly wages). They are holiday bonus (3 important national holidays) and the year-end-bonus (this really differs among hospitals, and could be ranging from [less]US$700 to US$3000[more]; for the first-year-pharmacist, usually they don’t have the year-end-bonus). Furthermore, generally we have daily work-hours by law and pharmacists in general hospital need to work in 3 shifts (day shift/night shift/midnight shift). Pharmacists would take terns to run the shifts in the hospital. For the night shift and midnight shift, there’s usually some bonus for people taking the shifts as well.

Therefore, we could mounted up the annual salary of a year 1 young pharmacist could be US$15000 to US$2000. As you can see, there’s huge difference among hospitals in Taiwan.

4. Answering you previous questions

– Is it easy to find jobs in the public hospital for pharmacists in Taiwan

Since the starting salary in public hospital is lower, general pharmacist would not take public hospitals as their first choice, even though the trainings in public setting are more intact.

– Where do they normally start their career?

No doubt, it would be the hospital setting of most of the people’s choices. Compare with the community pharmacy setting, the training in hospital is more complete and diversified.

On September 6th during the FIP Congress (Istanbul, Turkey), the Pharmaceutical Society of Taiwan jointly hosted the first-ever FAPA/Taiwan Reception in the Hilton Istanbul with the Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Associations, and the Taiwan Society of Health-System Pharmacists. This is the first try in the FIP Congress that we together invite our international colleagues and friends; jointly celebrate the friendships and annual meeting in the FIP World Congress.

(Opening of the Reception, September 6th)

(Playing of 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition video)

Before we arrived at Istanbul, the PST Office systematically emailed and mailed the invitations to our FAPA member countries and to FIP, and we gained lots of responses. At the date of the FAPA/Taiwan Reception, more than 300 colleagues and friends attended our Reception. And, many leaders or board members from different countries’ society/organizations showed up and joined us at night. The Reception started at 5pm, and we are honored to have President Nam (FAPA), President Chien (TSHP), Mr. Thony Björk (FIP), Prof. Nagai (FAPA), Dr. Peter Kailgast (Former President of FIP, and Former Director of FIP Education & Research Foundation), and Mr. Leslie Z. Benet (FIP) to address to the audience. During the Reception, we are appreciated that Dr. Kamal K. Midha (FIP), Mr. Ton Hoek (FIP), Mr. John Bell (FIP), and Mr. John Ware (WPPF) joined us and celebrate the meaningful night with us.

(President Nam, FAPA)

(President Chien, TSHP)

(President Huang, PST)

(Mr. Thony Björk, FIP Vice President)

(Mr. Leslie Z. Benet, FIP Education & Research Foundation)

(President Huang and Dr. Kamal K. Midha, FIP President)

(Mr. John Ware and his colleagues, WPPF)

(Mr. John Bell and our MC)

FAPA, as co-host of this Reception, more than a hundred participants were from FAPA member countries and this hadn’t have included the participants of 80~90 from Taiwan. Our distinguished guest and a old friend, Dr. Peter Kailgast made the comments out of his personal feeling, “these group of Taiwanese people, in my term as being the President of FIP, the first question they asked me was not I expected, but asking me that what they can do for FIP, for the international pharmacy profession. And this reminded me of what the US President John F. Kennedy’s famous inaugural addressing, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” People in the Ballroom were not un-touched by this sincere and passionate addressing, not to mention the Taiwanese people who’s been respecting and cherishing old friends and friendships.

(Dr Peter Kailgast, Former FIP President; A respectful elderly and old friend)

At the end of Dr. Kailgast’s addressing, he also suggested three reasons for people to consider visiting Taiwan. First of all, try and visit Taiwan and prove yourself why the Portuguese sailed to the seashore of this small green island, shouted out “El La Formosa!” astonished by its beauty. Second, Please take a look the people around you, you would find who adorable are these people and what/how you can expect the 2010 FAPA Congress in Taiwan. Last but not least, for the professional suggestion, the National Health Insurance Program of Taiwan shall provide as good example for the world and share its fruitful experience with its international colleagues.

The Reception ended around 7pm and all the participants happily left after taking photos in front of the Reception banner. It was a successful Reception ever-co-hosted by FAPA/PST/TSHP. Hope the Reception would continue and see you all next year in FIP Congress (Lisbon, Portugal) and for sure, we can’s miss you in Taiwan for 2010 FAPA Congress.

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